Advice of charging (AoC) functions to prompt to a user by a server the account status and balance information when the user logs on for the first time, or when the user accesses a service that needs to be charged, inform the user about the cost of the service access in advance or prompt the user with the cost of the service afterwards.
In the conventional art, an AoC method includes the following steps. A terminal initiates a service browsing request to a service gateway. The service gateway identifies the service type and terminal ID, modifies a uniform resource location (URL) of the service browsing request into a URL of a service charging server, and sends the URL to the service charging server. The service charging server requests corresponding charge information of a charging engine, then generates a prompt page according to the returned charge information, and returns the prompt page to the service gateway. The service gateway forwards the prompt page to the terminal. The terminal receives the prompt page, accepts this charge according to a user operation, for example, pressing an OK key, and meanwhile sends a service request to the service gateway. The service gateway receives the service request, identifies that this service browsing request has already been sent to the service charging server, and then forwards the service request to a service provider (SP)/content provider (CP). The SP/CP returns response information of the service request to the service gateway, and the service gateway forwards the response information to the terminal.
The above method is mainly adapted to modify the URL of the service browsing request of the terminal on the service gateway side into the URL of the service charging server, and then display the URL to the user by a browser. As for non-Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)/Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browsing data services, the browser is not activated in the use of the services, so the above method cannot be used. Therefore, this method is inapplicable to data services such as streaming media and mail. Further, this method is only applicable to fee advice before using the services, and cannot be employed to inform the actual cost after the service is used.